We have a runoff date

Gov. Rick Perry on Friday set a March 2 special runoff election to fill the open seat created by the death of the late state Sen. Mario Gallegos. The race, between State Rep. Carol Alvarado and former Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia, will occur just six days before the deadline for lawmakers to file bills in the 83rd legislative session.

Sylvia Garcia

Because Harris County has 10 days to canvass those results and the governor’s office has an additional four days after that, the spring election likely means SD-6 will not have representation until mid-March. The winner cannot take her oath until the governor’s office performs its official canvass, the secretary of state’s office confirmed last month.

Perry spokesman Josh Havens said the March 2 date was the earliest possible runoff date after Harris County performed its canvass on Feb. 4.

March 2 is of course also Texas Independence Day. Clearly it will be more festive for some folks than for others. I have to say, I fully expected Perry to set the date for March 16, the latest possible date, because he had no reason to do otherwise and it would maximally screw the district. I’m glad to see that for once I was too cynical about him. Now let’s see if the Chron can manage to narrow its endorsement down to one candidate sometime before then.